NEW PROOF -- Chief investigator Paul Ciolino addresses a press conference Wednesday in North Bergen with proof that former boxing champion Arturo Gatti, formerly of Hoboken and Jersey City, did not take his own life in 2009 and was the victim of a homicide.

NORTH BERGEN AND BEYOND – A group of 10 private investigators, pathologists and scientists all announced the same conclusion Wednesday morning at a press conference in North Bergen -- they believe former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti did not commit suicide in Brazil in July of 2009 and that his cause of death was homicide.

At a press conference held at the Global Boxing Gym, it was revealed that head investigators Paul Ciolino and Joseph Moura concluded their 10-month investigation into the mysterious death of the boxing champ, who had lived in both Hoboken and Jersey City during his boxing heyday. Gatti died in an apartment in Brazil more than two years ago.

Brazilian police first ruled that Gatti’s death was a homicide and arrested his wife, Brazilian native Amanda Rodrigues, charging her with murder. However, three weeks later, Rodrigues, a former resident of Union City, was released from custody when it was determined that the 37-year-old Gatti took his own life, allegedly hanging himself with a strap from his wife’s purse.

But Ciolino and Moura, two veteran private investigators hired by Gatti’s manager Pat Lynch of Union City, went through an extensive investigation into the boxer’s death and determined -- with the help of others -- that Gatti did not take his own life and was in fact murdered.

“No one would ever know without a complete investigation,” said Ciolino, who has been involved in private investigative work for more than 30 years. “No matter what we found out, there were going to be doubters. But this is the result of 10 months worth of work and what we found.”

Ciolino and Moura both traveled to Brazil to investigate the scene of Gatti’s death.

“We had no control over the crime scene,” Ciolino said. “There were all sorts of problems. The body was moved. Evidence was moved.”

“We spent two days at the crime scene and we knew within two days that the crime scene did not fit the crime and was not what the Brazilian police said it was,” Moura said. “It was clearly not a suicide.”

Experts proved that Gatti was first injured with a blow to the back of the head that caused him to bleed profusely, although pathologists do believe that Gatti was apparently strangled to death.

For more about this story, read Jim Hague’s Scoreboard column in this week’s editions of the Hudson Reporter. – Jim Hague